The Sunrise R-9 School District will revert back to a five-day school week for at least one school year.
Superintendent Armand Spurgin said the district did not file a ballot measure to continue holding four-day school weeks in time to be on the April 7 ballot. He said the Board of Education was scheduled to meet Tuesday, after the Leader’s deadline, to decide when Sunrise would ask voters to approve the four-day week.
Sunrise, which does not have a high school, has had a four-day school week since the 2019-2020 school year.
“We will have to go back to a five-day,” Spurgin said of the 2026-2027 school year.
In May 2024, former Gov. Mike Parson signed an omnibus school bill, which requires districts in charter counties or cities with more than 30,000 residents to seek voter approval before moving to a four-day week.
Lucas Bond, Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) chief communications officer, said districts that have four-day school weeks needed to hold a public vote before July 1, to continue operating under that schedule for the following school year.
He said a simple majority vote would allow a school district to continue operating under a four-day school week for 10 years, and after that, another public vote would be required by law.
According to DESE, 188 school districts in the state follow a four-day schedule this school year.